A groovy kind of love
It turns out that Democratic voters like their Democratic candidates — a lot. The NYT makes it all sound like a teenage crush in the summer of love:
many Democrats here have been in a state of happy paralysis, luxuriating in what they say is an unusually strong set of candidates and plenty of attention from them. Instead of the usual voter complaints about choosing among unattractive options, there are meditative conversations about Senator Barack Obama’s freshness versus Gov. Bill Richardson’s international résumé versus John Edwards’s commitment to the underprivileged versus the historic prospect of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s becoming the first female president…
rather than settling their choices, several voters said, the thrill of seeing the candidates up close, of hearing their appeals in person, has only made their decisions more labored. “There are so many options,” said Julia Zaffarano, a counselor for homeless youths…
In discussing their choices, Democrats sounded like diners ooohing and ahhing slowly — very slowly — over a menu with too many enticing choices. Lingering after an Edwards rally at Iowa State University, three generations of women from the Zaffarano family wavered between Mr. Edwards and Mr. Richardson. Suzanne Zaffarano said the event had drawn her to Mr. Edwards, because she was touched to see Elizabeth Edwards, his wife, campaigning despite an incurable case of breast cancer…
“If Barack Obama and John Edwards were together on the ticket they would have my vote in a second,” said Cecelia Kemmerer, over lunch. It was only her first day out of the house since neck surgery several weeks ago and she gasped with effort through many of her answers. But “I will be at that caucus if I have to crawl,” she said.
The Times gives no indication that it is aware that it talking to a peculiar 1% substratum of Iowans who are so captivated by politics that they attend the caucuses, indeed even “crawl” to them. Possibly the reporters fail to notice this because they too believe that politics is life.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Oh good lord. I don’t know if I can stand another year of this love fest. The NYTs has no class and no subtlety. One might even say that they lack nuance.
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Phillip Klein has a similar article in today’s American Spectator titled ‘Hungry Democrats’. In the artiicle he says the dem candidates are outdrawing the GOP candidates and the crowds are much more enthusiastic.